Herbal Womb Wisdom

Herbs for surgery? Something commonly overlooked is how many surgeries women and folks with wombs encounter in their lifetime. From high cesarean rates and hysterectomies to endometriosis excision surgeries to hip or knee replacements post-menopause, we experience a LOT of surgical intervention and we're often far underprepared for how we can restore the tissue integrity, reduce scarring, and...

Fertility is a reflection of your overall health, wellbeing, vitality, capacity.  I think it's common to pigeonhole "trying to conceive" as all about hormones, but actually our body's reproductive resilience is a mirror of what else may be going on in our bodies.  There are so many factors at play, from nutrition to movement to environmental exposures to stress levels to blood...

What comes up for you when you think of offering yourself gentleness? I think for many of us, we don't feel time for things like slowness, soothing, gentleness, tenderness, caretaking our own selves.  We're often preoccupied with any number of other roles and responsibilities in life, and as women and folks with wombs, we've often been socialized to place ourselves at the bottom run...

What's the difference between body positivity and body neutrality? I think this is a really important distinction that today's guest - strength coach Kali Perry - gives insight into surrounding her own journey in her body as she eventually found her way to finally having a breast reduction she'd been considering for many years.  The concept of body positivity kind of requires us to...

What does it mean to connect to your womb, anyway?  I mean, is that a practical thing or totally intangible? It's a fair question, and one I would have asked many years ago when I was completely and utterly disconnected from the part of my body "where the sun don't shine." It took me many years to find my way there.  It's interesting, a couple days ago I was in a circle of...

The energy of peak summer is upon us.  It's been HOT and the speed of the everything-all-at-onceness with all the plants coming in, the quickening energy of social time, long days, short nights, holidays, travel, adventures, and so much more.  How can you better navigate all these energies by connecting with the plants and your own body? Today I'm offering a glimpse into three different...

If you haven't ever heard of Interstitial Cystitis (IC) aka Bladder Pain Syndrome, you're not alone -- but it's actually a lot more common than you may think.  IC might look like all the symptoms of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTI's) though it lacks the bacteria that cause those infections. But because it's exceedingly common to not test for bacteria before prescri...

What happens when we look beyond the basics of "herbs for fertility?" Because let's be honest that quite often folks who are on a fertility journey, trying to conceive, are experiencing far more than a simple hormonal imbalance.  Though of course, some folks are... and we can look in that direction too.  The truth is though, that the path of TTC can be a long and meandering one for...

Becoming a mother or parent is transformational - no matter what- and there is growth with every pregnancy and birth along the way too. But the journey of meeting, acquainting with and then navigating the world of complex caregiving when your new baby is born with special medical needs is likely hard to understand if you haven't walked the path yourself. Personally I haven't walked that...

Okay, wait what!? Is it actually possible to experience an empowered pelvic exam? If you've ever laid on an exam table with your feet in stirrups awaiting a cold speculum from a practitioner who's giving dozens of pelvic exams each day, you'd probably answer, 'hell no.'  Almost every part of a gynecologic exam feels awkward to most of us. Pants off, feet in stirrups (are w...

This is a first my friends.  I can't always answer Q's, especially in my DM's and emails, from listeners so I thought this would be a great way to share my answers (which always tend to be more nuanced than a quick response, let's be honest). If someone is asking these questions, my guess is that many more of you are too.  So I hope you enjoy this grab bag of Q+A this week. Fir...

I'll be the first to admit that it irks me when people use the term "plant medicine" to refer to psychedelics, or what perhaps could be more properly termed "entheogens." First of all, half of those are isolated compounds that are created in labs (perhaps originally derived from plants, but not always) and others are derived from fungi or animal compounds.  Like, they aren...

We all know loss, grief, heartbreak. But how many of us know how to tend it in ourselves or in those we love? Once we've made it into adulthood, many of us have experienced heartbreak -- a total shattering -- at least once, if not multiple times.  And as we move onward into midlife and beyond, the heartbreaks just compound, don't they?  We begin to identify, for years, sometimes decades,...

Herbs and pregnancy. Let's just say this is a topic with all kinds of perspectives depending on who you talk to. Or what link you click after your google search.  So, how do you know what's safe, what's not, and who to trust when it comes to herbs, like for instance red raspberry leaf, in pregnancy? Well, it's a multi-layered response really, which is why I recorded an entire e...

What does it mean to hold trauma in the wombspace?  And what are some signs that indicate that womb trauma may be present? The topic of "womb healing" is a bit of a buzz these days and sometimes I wonder what people mean by that. I see social media profiles of "womb healing practitioners" and "womb healing" programs and honestly it's a vague concept. It could be...

Follicular, Ovulatory, Luteal, Menstrual.  Inner spring, Inner summer, Inner Autumn, Inner Winter. Waxing Moon, Full Moon, Waning Moon, New Moon. The cycles of nature are tangible in ourselves, and especially for those of us with wombs while we're in our cycling years, we have the option to align ourselves with the phase of our cycle we'e in at any given moment.  For instance, I'm c...

Well, today I decided to go for it and talk about everyone's favorite topic... poop. 😂 But for real, the quality and regularity of our elimination has a huge impact on our overall health.  And unfortunately, we've all but normalized constipation.  Most folks go to the doctor and when they're asked, "Do you have regular bowel movements?" They respond, "yes." Beca...

When you think about the menopausal transition, what comes up? I'm genuinely curious actually...  Is it the end of the cycling years, no more bleeding? Or the hot flashes, low libido, dry vaginal tissues, maybe even need to focus more on bone or heart health? Does it feel liberating or like something you're dreading? I know some folks here are already well beyond their menopausal years (...

Something that always surprises me is how powerful it is to share stories, especially when they relate to "things we don't talk about." It's pretty easy for us to share stories about how our day went awry, or something funny about what our kids did when trying to get them to eat their dinner.  But what we don't talk about are often the things we are socialized to keep quie...

As humans, we love stories. And sometimes physiology can be boring and heady and unpalatable. But what if we tell the story of what's happening instead? What if we see the primordial germ cell that may become an oocyte and may ovulate and then travel from the ovary through the uterine tubes and beyond as an epic tale? Honestly, I've fallen in love with physiology, and the burst of potent...

It's Equinox time! Finally, spring is showing its face... or is it?  Depends where you live, honestly.  Regardless, those of us in the northern hemisphere are likely noticing longer days, and with that increased light, we're reminded that spring is either here, or coming soon. Here in the Wabanaki lands of Maine, we're teetering between cold and slightly warmer days, the ground is s...

There are so many reasons to grieve right now, on the planet, in our personal lives.  Whether it's part of our womb stories or not. Loss is everywhere.  We can't escape it, it's part of being a fully living human.  So instead of trying to minimize it or rush through it, as our modern world would love to have us do, what if we learn to tend our grief? What could it look like to have...

I woke up this morning feeling the spark of spring, and simultaneously felt the excitement of plants popping up. Maybe soon, maybe not.  In those moments, I started to reflect on the multitude of ways we can "be an herbalist." And how I'm really a blend of so many, depending on the day, and how my personal herbal journey reflects this.  I realized I haven't really ever told my...

As humans, we are storytelling creatures... but I think we often overlook how powerful hearing stories of others healing can be.  Especially when they include facing profound debilitation and hopelessness. And show us how we are ALL capable of finding our way from the darkness to the light.  To vitality, vibrancy -- even pleasure.  And that's what I really really love about Julia's story...

Your pleasure is a superpower.  Not metaphorically. Actually.  And I'm not just talking orgasms and clitoral stimulation, though that's certainly a huge pathway to pleasure.  Instead I mean, connecting to what feels good - uniquely, in your body, to you.  And that's different for everyone.  But in starting to pay attention to anything that feels good, you start inviting the possibil...